Can a regular yoga practice help with back pain?

This week we have a guest writer, Fergus Dick, the Manager of Brixton Therapy Centre. A longtime Brixton resident, he tells us how yoga helped his back pain – on the advice of Brixton’s favourite osteopath (and his wife) Mardi Jamieson.

“I never had any back trouble really until after I moved to Brixton in my late 20s, it was 1995. I can’t blame Brixton! The back pain was probably caused by a hedonistic lifestyle, which lurched from Thursday nights to Thursday nights and involved feverish dancing at the Fridge, the 414 and Cooltan.

Fortunately when I fell in love and settled down a bit my partner proved to be an experienced osteopath, so whenever I was laid low with low back pain I had a source of treatment on hand. Mardi has been running Brixton Therapy Centre for 15 years now, so she was a source of sensible advice as well as back treatment; not that I always listened.

Mardi always advises her clients that the best way of avoiding back trouble is to practice yoga regularly. She has made a living out of people who don’t listen to this advice.

Yoga became my favourite form of exercise when I started going to the Joyoga studio. The Scaravelli brand of yoga that she introduced me to was just right for my level of flexibility and strength at the time.

Now that Fierce Grace has come to Coldharbour Lane, we have a new kind of yoga in Brixton: Hot Yoga that allows you to go at your own level. You can use blocks and straps so there’s none of that Bikram pressure.

I’m still overweight and stiff in the hips, but I’m living life with Fierce Grace at the age of 48. See you there sometime.”